WILL RESIGNATION OF CALIF. STATE SEN. AFFECT CCS REGULATORY BILL?

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
3/1/13

Carbon capture and storage supporters in California said they hope the resignation of a key supporter in the state Senate will not affect the status of a key regulatory bill making its way through the legislature’s upper house. CCS advocates were left scrambling late last week for a new sponsor for legislation that would smooth regulatory gaps for the permitting of CCS projects in the state after the previous sponsor unexpectedly resigned Feb. 22. “Right now we’re in the process of looking for folks with experience in the energy or climate change fields to pick up the mantle. The bill has gone through the legislature before, so we have folks who we’ve worked with in the past, but we don’t yet have a candidate or two” to sponsor the legislation, California CCS Coalition Executive Director Pete Montgomery told GHG Monitor this week.

The coalition group has been one of the main entities rallying support behind S.B. 34, legislation reintroduced in the state Senate in December. The measure would clarify subsurface pore space ownership in the state, identify the authorities for CCS project permitting and put pressure on the California Air Resources Board to list CCS as an eligible emissions-cutting technology under the state’s climate law, AB 32, by 2016. The bill, which has garnered support from environmental NGOs like the Natural Resources Defense Council and some industry and labor groups, was amended weeks ago ahead of consideration at a now-cancelled Environmental Quality Committee hearing.

Rubio to Lead Chevron’s Gov’t Affairs

But efforts came to a screeching halt late last week when the bill’s sponsor, Environmental Quality Committee Chairman Michael Rubio, abruptly resigned from the Senate. Rubio, a moderate Democrat who was a rising star in the party, said Feb. 22 that he was stepping down in order to spend more time with his family. Rubio said he accepted a position leading the California government affairs division of Chevron. “I look forward to transitioning into a career that will allow me to seize a generational opportunity and work for a respected California company with deep roots in Kern County near the very oil fields where I was born,” he said in a statement. Rubio, whose district encompassed Kern County, home to SCS Energy’s planned 390 MW Hydrogen Energy California CCS project, had quickly become one of the legislature’s most prominent CCS champions in his two years in the upper chamber.

Rubio’s resignation at least temporarily stalls efforts to pass the CCS regulatory legislation. The bill can be reassigned to another member of the Senate, Montgomery said, but backers must first secure a viable sponsor. “We lost a big champion for CCS in Senator Rubio, but I do feel confident that we’ll find someone to carry the legislation,” he said. “We’re working with all the right people to make sure we can get the bill to the Governor this year.” A similar measure had worked its way through several committees in the legislature last year before unexpectedly stalling.

Will CCS Lose Visibility in the Legislature?

Other CCS supporters from environmental NGOs in California said that while Rubio brought some attention to the technology, they do not expect the issue to lose visibility in the legislature. “The state legislature is much more aware of the issues surrounding CCS than it was a few years ago. There have been multiple discussions and a formally-convened CCS Review Panel appointed by the Governor that concluded work just over two years ago,” said George Peridas of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Where we are right now is in a very different place than we were in 2007. Sen. Rubio was a champion of this issue and someone who knew it well, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t another member who’s willing to go forward on this will not emerge.”

Timothy O’Connor, director of Environmental Defense Fund’s California Climate and Energy Initiative, said that while CCS has never been an area of major focus in the legislature, Rubio’s exit will not wipe the issue off the map. “I don’t think Rubio’s departure is necessarily a wholly negative issue. It could be seen as a setback for CCS, especially if it results in the bill not moving forward, but I don’t think necessarily that CCS needed Mr. Rubio in order to move forward in California,” he said.